262 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 
Another lepidopterous larva, but of a much larger size and different 
genus, the case of which is preserved in the cabinet of the late President 
of the Linnean Society, who pointed it out to me, employs the spines ap- 
parently of some species of Mimosa, which are ranged side by side, so as 
to form a very elegant fluted cylinder. A similar arrangement of pieces of 
small twigs is observable in the habitation of the females’ of the larve 
of a moth referred by Von Scheven to Bombyw vestita F. (which Ochsen- 
heimer regards as synonymous with Psyche graminella) ; while P. Viciella 
of the Wiener Verzeichniss covers itself with short portions of the stems of 
grasses placed transyersely, and united by means of silk into a five or 
six-sided case. The habitation of a third larva of the same family, 
described and figured by Reaumur (P. Graminella Ochsenh., just ‘amen, 
is composed of squarish pieces of the /eaves of grass fastened only at 
one end, and overwrapping each other like the tiles of a house; and 
that of another noticed by the same author, of portions of the smallest 
twigs of broom arranged on the same plan? Indeed the larvee of the whole 
of this tribe of moths, now separated into a distinct genus (Psyche Schrank, 
Ochsenh., Fumea Haworth), but which, according to Germar, needs fur- 
ther subdivision, reside in cases or sacks (whence they are called by the 
Germans Sacktréger) composed of silk, and fragments of grass, bark, &c.° 
The larvze of a small beetle (Clytra /ongimana) reside in oviform cases, 
apparently of a calcareous or earthy substance, joined by a gummy 
cement, and covered with red hairs, the origin of which Hiibner, who first 
‘discovered them, could not account for; and from the observations of 
Amstein and the French translator of Fuessly’s Archives, it seems pro- 
bable that the larvze of all the species of Clytra, and, according to Zschorn, 
at least of one species of Cryptocephalus (C. duodecimpunctatus), live in 
moveable cases*; as do also the larve of Chiamys, a splendid Brazilian 
genus of the same family, and those of the equally brilliant genus Lampro- 
soma, forming them of their excrement, which in the former assume a sin- 
gular appearance, from a very large and conical hollow mantle fitted to the 
mouth of the case. The larvee of a species of Limnius (L. @neus) inhabit 
a fixed case made of particles of stone or sand; and the same materials 
probably serve for the abode of the other species of this and those of 
allied genera which reside under water. 
Waw is the principal substance employed in the habitations of the larve 
before mentioned, occasionally so destructive to bee-hives. These insidi- 
ous depredators, which are mentioned by Aristotle®, tying together, with 
silk, grains of wax (which, and not honey, fornis their food), construct 
1 The larve of the males intermix with the pieces of twigs, which are less closely 
and regularly arranged, bits of dried leaves and other light materials. See the ex- 
cellent elucidation of the history of this tribe, whose mode of generation is so sin- 
gular, by Von Scheven, in the Waturforscher, Stk. xx. 61. &c.; also a valuable 
paper by Dr. Zincken genannt Sommer, in Germar’s Mag. fiir Ent. i. 19—A0. 
2 Reaum. iii, 148, 149. n. 11. f. 10, 11. 
3 Tn the hotter regions of the globe, this group is replaced by the gigantic Oike- 
tici, several species of which have been figured by the late L. Guilding in the 
Transactions of the Linnean Society. ‘The cases of some of these insects exhibit an 
extraordinary degree of instinct in their construction, and are of a much larger 
size than a hen’s egg. (See Westw. Mod. Class. Ins. ii. 388.) 
4 Fuessly, Archiv. 58. t. 81. Germar’s Mag. fiir Ent. i. 1386. 
5 Westwood in Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond, iii. proc. xxviii, 
6 Aristot. Hist, Anim, 1. viii. c. 27 
